Lost in Time and Space
by Cass-The-Nerd
Summary: Clarissa Nichols isn't a fighter. She loves the outdoors and uses it as a way to figure out her thoughts. But deep in the woods that she likes to explore, there is the technology of an alien race, meant to save their species from extinction. It failed, but Clarissa has the worst luck and just happened to stumble upon it, pulling herself into a world she doesn't understand.


I loved wandering in the woods when I could find the time out of my day, which normally meant at least once a weekend. Alana never understood but I didn't need her too, I just needed her to have some patience when I didn't come home until late at night. I had offered before for her to come with me since she loved the outdoors, but she vehemently denied. Said she didn't like the woods around our place, that they gave her the heebie-jeebies.

Of course, the same thing that scared her off made me love them all the more, I never knew what I would find, even if that something was just a cool rock formation or something stranger. Once I found at least five or six small kitchen appliances. Perfect condition, but just abandoned.

The was nothing about today that set my internal alarm bells off. It was just a bad day, but it seemed par for the course since I was having a good week. I forgot my house keys, then I couldn't find my spare, later I had to pay for my food in small bills and change since I forgot my wallet, and when I got my drink the bottom of the cup fell out a ruined my clothes.

I fully planned to go hide out and not come out until I felt relaxed. Looking for something new and interesting, I went in a completely different direction. There wasn't anything really interesting but I was content to just lose myself in my thoughts.

At least, until I tripped over something very strange.

I wasn't klutzy like Alana, with her two left feet. Most of the time I never lost my balance or when I did I recovered before I fell. It really reflected on how bad today was that I managed to get lost in my thoughts. My hands, now raw and dirty, were wiped on my jeans before I turned around to discover what I tripped over.

A small metal orb was half buried in the ground, covered in dirt and moss, and nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding ground had I not dislodged it. It didn't look like anything I had seen before. Attempting to pull it out of the ground was not the smartest choice, leaving me with a now sputtering device that looked like it was desperately trying to start up.

It was whirring around on the ground, trying to get itself up out of the ground. Fearing it's moving parts, I slowly dug out the soil surrounding it to watch it dart up out of the ground and _fly off_. That was not was I expecting, so it took me a bit to get my bearings and dash after.

The plants here were overgrown and I couldn't even see any footprints in the moist dirt, no signs that anyone had ever come here before me. Dashing off after the floating orb left me a little winded after a bit, not realizing how deep into the woods I was being led. I paused to catch my breath and wasn't aware of the green light I was being bathed in before the ringing became so loud I couldn't ignore it.

I fell to my knees in anguish, the awful ringing making me feel like my head was about to explode. I lost all sense of time and the awful pain must have gone on for hours. The VI started making noise, but not in any language I could identify. Images were flashed in holographic form, but it had no meaning to me, not without the accompanying verbal information.

I recognized some of the images, but only a few. Earth and the Milky Way, but none of the rest, like these giant prawn-looking things. Now that I wasn't concerned with watching the holograms and getting all the information I could or being auditorily assaulted, I had a chance to look around the clearing I now found myself in.

Surrounded by strange technology that I had never seen anything like before, I forgot all sense of caution. Without taking into consideration that the rest of the tech might still be active since the orb was, I approached the largest object in the clearing. Smooth and at least twice as tall as me, the base was large wide enough to fit a person or two.

It was too late to run away when I realized I was being pulled towards it. A green aura that felt like it was suffocating me pulled me forward despite me digging my heels into the ground. In one sharp motion, I was dragged upwards and my arms and legs jerked out.

Everything was on fire, my whole body covered in burning pain. Unable to make my voice work, my mouth was open but no scream came out. Eventually, everything went black.

 _Don't get too hung up on me Alana. Don't forget to live your life._

* * *

Analyzing Subject

…

Analysis Complete

Subject Accepted

…

Commencing Protocol

* * *

It was so cold, I felt like I would never be warm again. There was light now, but I couldn't move towards it, my limbs felt so heavy.

I could hear a voice.

"Commander, she's alive."

They were holding me, pulling me out of the pod, taking me away from the cold. Images flashed through my head, a woman but not a human, blue-skinned without hair. _Were those tentacles?_ Words that made no sense, Ruins, and plea to a red-headed woman. Crumbling stone and rocks, the intense fear that she was going to die.

Scathing remarks from a human with black hair, and joke that didn't go over well. The red-headed one with kind words and concern about her. She was beautiful and strange and strong.

The touch jerked away.

"Goddess, what happened to her? She's been experimented on."

My head hurt and I wanted to go back to sleep, I didn't want to face what had happened.

"We need to get her back to the Normandy."

They were taking me somewhere, I didn't want to leave. I didn't know who they were. What if they hurt me?

"I think she's waking, we have to hurry"

No, they can't take me. I jerked my arms, trying to get out of the mystery woman's grasp.

"No, no no no, don't take me. I don't trust you, I don't know you."

"It's going to be okay, I'm Commander Shepard with the Systems Alliance Navy, we're going to get you help"

I didn't have the energy to fight anymore, and she seemed so sincere. I let the blackness take me once again.


End file.
